


A Shortcut to the Sun through the Shadow

by Valgus



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: F/M, M/M, Slice of Life, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2016-09-05
Packaged: 2018-06-10 14:20:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6960526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valgus/pseuds/Valgus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You had the biggest crush to Hinata Shouyou and had asked his (presumably) best friend, Kageyama Tobio, on what sort of girl Hinata liked. </p><p>But as everyone thought you were dating Kageyama, you slowly discovered that your biggest rival in becoming Hinata's girlfriend, in becoming the number one person on Hinata's life, was Kageyama himself.</p><p>Or a story in which you also slowly realised that your "consulting about Hinata" session with Kageyama was basically just the two of you fangirling and fanboying on how cute and great Hinata was.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beginning

You probably created a ruckus by calling the famous Kageyama Tobio to behind the gym on lunch break, but you didn’t realise this. It was either because you were dense or because you had your eyes only on Hinata Shouyou.

“Um,” said Kageyama, when both of you were finally alone behind the gym. “I really apologise, but if you were to confess your feeling to me and ask me to be your boyfriend, I consider myself married to volleyball.”

You looked up to Kageyama’s face. He was tall. His legs were long. He had a really nice face too. But you always understood that people were more than their outer shell. Kageyama might be a handsome, tall boy who seemed to be very popular in your school, Karasuno High, but you were in love with Hinata Shouyou’s unwavering strength and spirit and you wished to be closer to the orange haired boy.

You chuckled upon hearing Kageyama’s words.

“’Married to volleyball’?” you laughed as you repeated his words, eyeing the setter as your body shook with giggle.

Kageyama blushed a little at that. “S-shut up. So what do you call me here for?”

Your hands started to feel sweaty again and your feet were cold all over. “Um… I-I actually…” you exhaled. “I’m actually in love with you Hinata-kun!” you were half-yelling at the end of your sentence, but you were relief to get the words out of your mouth.

Kageyama gave you the most annoyed face possible, “Why the hell are you calling me for, then?”

“Eh?” you chuckled shyly once again. “Because you’re Hinata-kun’s best friend, aren’t you, Kageyama-kun? You know what he likes. You c-can help me find out what type of girls he l-like.”

He frowned at you, but without malice. After a while, he sighed, “I thought you were going to confess to me.”

You smirked playfully, “Well, you _are_ very popular, Kageyama-kun, but I don’t have a crush on you. Are you disappointed that I’m not one of your fans?”

His frown grew deeper now, “Of course not!” But then he stopped pouting for once and scratched his nape, “I’m actually kind of glad that you don’t like me that way. I always feel bad when I have to reject girls. And there’s always so many of them… what’s up with that? None of you know me. None of you even have talked to me. How can you want to be girlfriend of someone you never talk to?”

“Beats me,” you shrugged. “So, anyway, do you think you can help me with, um, getting closer to Hinata-kun?” Your cheeks were warm all over again.

Kageyama sighed, squinting his eyes at you, “You know he’s all over volleyball-freak like me, right?”

Your face was very hot at this point, “I know! I just want to be close to him. I don’t—well, if I could be his girlfriend, that’d be like dream come true…” And you started to imagine going to the matches to support him, Hinata smiling at you on the bleacher after he scored a point… “A-anyway, I just want to know him better. In exchange, I can teach you about study, Kageyama-kun!”

He raised his eyebrows, “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I’m actually in the country’s top 100 students on junior high’s National Exam,” you grinned proudly.

Kageyama sighed, “You know what, I’ll help you even if you didn’t teach me. But maybe it’d be helpful to have you around when we study. Tsukishima and Yachi-san might be good, but I don’t know whether they’re on your level. How do you study, anyway? How do you do it _at all_?”

“There’s a trick for everything,” you shrugged, trying to look cool but super giddy at the prospect of studying with Hinata. “Thank you so much, Kageyama-kun. Hey, do you think we should exchange phone number so I can ask you about Hinata-kun and you can ask me about study?”

“That’s a good idea,” Kageyama pulled his dark blue flip phone from his pocket and you pulled out your orange-cased smartphone with dangling charms and items.

After you exchanged number with him, he eyed your phone and breathed, “You really have a crush on that Dumbass, huh?”

You pouted, “Don’t call Hinata-kun like that! He’s very amazing. But I think you already know that he’s amazing, don’t you, Kageyama-kun?”

Kageyama made a half-hearted nod.

Then the bell rang.

“Oh, we have to get back to class,” you pocketed your phone immediately. “I’ll text you later, okay, Kageyama-kun?”

Kageyama nodded silently and you turned around and left.

*)*

Only when after-lunch subject was over, you were flooded by congratulations for finally conquering Kageyama and getting to be his girlfriend. You remembered the scene and the whispers when you half-shouted at him asking him to follow you to behind the gym. Your face was really warm the entire time too. And some people probably saw you two exchanged numbers and assumed that Kageyama and you had started dating.

And you had clearly told everyone at least fifteen times a day on how cool Hinata was.

“Um, you guys realised that I have a crush on Hinata-kun, right? I want to get closer to him, not to Kageyama,” you said, tired from getting congratulated, since you hadn’t even get any closer to Hinata at all.

“Ah! So you date Kageyama-kun in order to get closer to Hinata-kun?” one of your friends said.

You groaned, “Nooo! It’s not like that. I don’t date Kageyama-kun. We become friends, okay?”

Your friends exchanged nasty glances, “Sure. You become _friends_ with Kageyama Tobio.”

In the end, you were too tired to convince your friends. So you just grumbled and tuned them out. When you checked your phone, you saw new message from Kageyama.

`Hinata likes raw egg over rice.`

You made gleeful giggle and typed a reply as fast as possible. `That’s the cutest thing ever! Thank you, Kageyama-kun.`

He replied, but in much slower pace. `Also, he seems to think that Kiyoko-san (the third year manager of the male volleyball club). People have been saying that she’s really beautiful.`

Upon reading that, you want to find nearest mirror so you can check whether you can categorise yourself as ‘beautiful’.

But your phone beeped again and you saw Kageyama had sent another message.` I don’t think you’re the ‘beautiful’ type like Kiyoko-san. I think you’re more of the ‘cute’ type. A little like Yachi-san, but you probably have the confidence of five Yachi-san combined. (Don’t tell her that. But since you’re top 100 students in Japan, of course you’d be confident in some degree.)`

You smiled at your phone and replied. `Thanks, Kageyama. Tell me the schedule of your class so I can arrange your study schedule for upcoming tests and stuffs, okay?`

`Okay,` he replied.

Two of your female friends peering over your shoulders, “Messaging with your new boyfriend already?”

You just sang, “Kageyama-kun is not my boyfriend.” There was no way you wouldn’t be happy after knowing Hinata’s favourite food. Also, if Kageyama thought you were cute, you’d probably be cute enough for Hinata.

“What did you ask him about, anyway?” your other friend giggled.

“Subject schedule,” you answered, as you started daydreaming about study session with Hinata again.

“Ah, so you can have after-school date with Kageyama-kun?” they chorused.

You just mumbled, “I’m not dating him.” _But I do want to date Hinata-kun._

But people would probably believe whatever they wanted to believe.

*)*

By the next day, the fake news spread as much as to the second and third year. When you walked past the captain of the male volleyball club, Sawamura-senpai, who was walking with the second year, Tanaka-senpai, they yelled at Kageyama in the distance.

“Kageyama, shouldn’t you walk with your girlfriend, you cold-blooded boyfriend?” Tanaka-senpai shouted, though with a trace of chuckle.

Kageyama ran towards you and his two seniors in the club, frowning, “I’m not dating her!”

“Nope,” you added. “We’re not dating.”

“Oh?” Tanaka-senpai looked confused.

“She’s—“ Kageyama started, but then he peered down at you, glaring. _It’s not a good idea to tell them you’re after Hinata, is it?_

You shook your head silently. _Absolutely not! I’d die of embarrassment._

“She’s my friend,” Kageyama stuttered, eventually. “Like I’m f-friend with Kiyoko-san or Yachi-san.”

“Okay,” said the two seniors, before they walked away.

Kageyama sighed, watched his teammates left, before he turned at you again, “I’m going to have Literature test two days from now on. Can I text you about it?”

“Sure. I have question on Hinata-kun’s family too! I heard he has a sister?” you smiled, wondering what sort of sister Hinata had.

“Yeah, he has one,” Kageyama nodded.

The bell rang.

“I’ll text you too!” you said, before started running to your class. Kageyama just nodded.

Only when you sat on your chair, before greeting the teacher along with your classmates, you realised that people in the corridor had heard you saying you’d text Kageyama and probably thought you were really dating him all over again.

And you know a perfect solution to this problem: you date Hinata for real.

But somehow, even though you knew that Kageyama was your shortcut to be Hinata’s girlfriend, you also had a feeling that you had to step over his dead body to become the number one person in Hinata Shouyou’s life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been wanting to do reader-insert for a while, so here's my attempt to do one.
> 
> It's so fun to write this because I do have the biggest crush on Hinata, but also happens to be chin deep in KageHina's hell. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> Links: [My Tumblr](http://hallovalgus.tumblr.com/) | [Haikyuu!! Forum](http://s15.zetaboards.com/haikyuu_forum/index/)


	2. Chapter 2

Along your plan to get closer to Hinata, it couldn’t be helped that you learned about Kageyama too. People often said on how scary-looking he was or how cool he looked when he did volleyball on the court. After being his friend—or an accomplice to get Hinata’s heart in this—you realised that he was just another normal fifteen years old boy with fear and insecurity. You let him talk on so many volleyball things before you asked more about Hinata. And Kageyama, not surprisingly, knows tons of things on Hinata.

The first studying session took place on Hinata’s house.

That morning, you spent hours picking the right clothes and styling your hair perfectly. In the end, you still thought your choice was a terrible one when you eyed your reflection on the window of the bus you took with Kageyama to Hinata’s house.

“What are you doing?” he grumbled. At that point, you were already used to the way he looked slightly angry at everything. That was just the way Kageyama was.

“I’m, uh, wondering whether I should go with brighter coloured shirt. Hinata-kun would like that better, don’t you think?” you blushed as you tried to adjust your hair for the fiftieth time that day.

Kageyama just frowned, “You look okay to me. Why do people care so much about look and what you wear? What’s important is whether whatever you wear is comfortable and you can move fast in it.”

You raised your eyebrow to Kageyama, who wore black T-shirt with ‘Soul Setter’ writing in Kanji.

“Kageyama-kun, is it possible that you’re the kind of person who goes to date in jersey?”

Kageyama squinted his eyes at you, “… Is it wrong?”

You couldn’t help but laugh. “Kageyama-kun, next time before you go on a date, please consult your clothing of choice first with me. You wouldn’t want to hurt the feeling of your date by appearing in jersey.”

Kageyama frowned, but mumbled a soft, “Okay.” But he quickly grunted, “But I don’t want to go to date with anyone. Isn’t practicing volleyball much more important than that?”

You made a weak smile, “Of course, Kageyama.”

Sometimes you felt like you could see Hinata shines through Kageyama and you didn’t know how to feel about that. Or perhaps it was just Kageyama thing, but also very much Hinata’s. You weren’t quite sure. Nevertheless, you felt grateful for Kageyama’s willingness to help you spend more time with Hinata.

*)*

You weren’t sure you taught anything of necessity on Hinata’s house, but you were so happy you almost cried when you realised you were in Hinata Shouyou’s house. His younger sister looked absolutely like him it was almost scary and his mother didn’t look like him at all.

The three of you studied math, in which you had learned from teaching Kageyama that as long as you connect the subject to anything volleyball, you could teach the odd duo anything.

Upon break for lunch, Natsu, Hinata’s little sister, looked at you in a way that it was almost unnerving.

“Are you Onii-chan’s girlfriend?” she asked suspiciously.

“Um, no,” you answered, red in the face. But I would love to, you thought.

“Oh,” Natsu looked less scary now, “Then, are you Tobio-nii-chan’s girlfriend?”

“No,” you answered with a little laugh this time. Not Natsu too! “The three of us are friends.”

“Okay,” Natsu said before leaving with her lion doll.

When you walked back to bus stop to catch bus back to town with Kageyama, you didn’t realise you said nothing for your head was full with Hinata’s face smiling at you, saying your name and complimenting on how you were such a good teacher.

You only realised that you boarded the bus when you felt Kageyama reached for your arm, in order to stop you stumbling backward to closing bus’ door.

“Be careful,” he grunted.

“Sorry,” you said, feeling almost impolite to Kageyama.

When you both finally sat, you sighed, “I’m so sorry. Today was surreal. I’m so very happy. Thank you, Kageyama-kun.”

Kageyama looked at your face, but not the usual look. There was something bothering him, you believed.

“It’s nothing,” he sighed. Then he looked outside the window before returning his stare at you. Something was still on his usually grumpy expression. Kageyama then spoke, slowly, almost unlike Kageyama you’ve known for the past two weeks, “You… really love him, don’t you?”

You made a weak chuckle, “Well… ‘love’ is a little strong, don’t you think? I guess I’m still too young to use the word ‘love’. I’d say I have a crush on Hinata-kun. He’s so… radiant. I feel very safe when I’m with him. Like I can do anything.”

“Mm,” mumbled Kageyama, who quickly looked away from your face and looked outside the window once again, “I think I understand that feeling.”

When you went home that evening, you felt like there was something you missed yet you needed to understand on Kageyama.

*)*

The mid-term tests rolled away beautifully for you. You spent so many study sessions with Hinata and by now Hinata was calling you with the first name. Kageyama witnessed you yelling to the sky out of happiness and you saw that strange look on his face again.

When there was a weeklong break after mid-term test, the three of you agreed to go out and seek the book that you recommended on learning Japanese Literature and English easily. You thought that it’d be an almost perfect date—almost, because Kageyama would be there, but it’d okay—until Hinata called Kageyama the next morning, saying he couldn’t go because Natsu was ill and Hinata would like to stay by her side.

When you waited by the train station in your cutest dress, you saw Kageyama came alone and you knew that Hinata wouldn’t come.

In the end, the two of you still boarded the train to the next town, because Hinata still said that he wanted the books and that Kageyama and you should have fun without him. But how in the world you could have fun when Hinata weren’t around?

You looked at your dress and wondered what sort of things Hinata would say on it, when you heard Kageyama coughed.

“I think Hinata would think your dress is very nice—I know nothing about dress, though,” he said.

You laughed, cheered up again, because if Kageyama said enough, then it’d be enough. They had pretty much the same sort of opinion on things like season or type of training, something you’ve learned by now.

The two of you met some of your friends and some other volleyball club members when you were in town. It was the holiday after test, after all. By now, you’ve became very much accustomed to the way people still wanted to believe that you date Kageyama. It didn’t matter what people think, because you have Hinata in your heart—the kind, sweet Hinata who stayed by his sister’s side when she was ill.

But when Kageyama and you stopped for a drink on a small café—you weren’t exactly surprised Kageyama never really went to a café before—upon returning from the bathroom, you realised that you weren’t the only one lonely that day.

Suddenly, the strange expression Kageyama made on your first day visiting Hinata’s house made sense. Kageyama wore the same expression when you were yelling happily for Hinata called you by the first name.

It was jealousy.

For Hinata had called you by your first name, yet still calling Kageyama with his last.

And now you weren’t sure where’d you want to go, because Kageyama had become a dear friend, and yet…

And yet…

You returned to your seat and watched the reflection on the darkening window. There you two sat, Kageyama and you, lonely, because you two were missing the same person.

You chuckled and it startled Kageyama.

“Oh, um,” he mumbled awkwardly. “The tea that you ordered for me is really tasty. I don’t really understand tea except the ones sold at vending machine, but this tastes really good.”

You smiled at him, almost sadly.

He picked up something in your smile.

You two were just the same; seeking for the sun after it went down.

You had this feeling that Kageyama didn’t even realised his own feeling. Now you wanted to make sure before, much later, making sure that Hinata would find happiness with Kageyama.

Before you two parted by the train station, you called Kageyama’s name.

He looked at you in a slightly skittish way—maybe he realised that you realised, “What is it?”

You asked him, “Can you imagine your life without Hinata-kun?”

After a second of bewilderment, Kageyama closed his eyes, sighed, and opened his eyes, “No. But you already know that, don’t you? Because you’re just the same.”

You could only answer with a laugh. “I’ll see you at school or on our next study session, Kageyama-kun.”

That night, you slept with a dream of seeing Hinata and Kageyama in the altar, both in suit and both exchanging rings.

And when you woke up, you think that it wasn’t so bad.

Because you’d love it very much for Hinata to be very happy, whomever he chooses.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't think I'd continue this, but here I am. I wrote this chapter in a single sit after realising what I wanted to say through this story. My biggest gratitude to atrt7900, rierizieyra, MajoSweetRiver, and Lenneytunes for commenting on the first chapter.
> 
> Thank you for reading.


End file.
